Rev. Wickham asked God to increase the bee population, which is being dangerously diminished by infestations of deadly mites.

I hope the blessing works. I can’t remember the last time I saw a honeybee.

We kept bees during my boyhood. While the rest of the family was in the fields, I was assigned to watch a particular hive believed to be ready to swarm, that is, relocate with half the hive’s population of 60,000 to 80,000 and the retiring queen.

When that happened, I frantically banged on a washtub and rang a dinner bell, hoping the noise would confuse the swarm, causing them to settle on a nearby tree limb instead of finding a new home deep in the woods or on the next farm.

My older brothers would later locate the swarm, pluck the queen from the center of the mass of bees and put her in a new gum where her loyal subjects would join her, giving us a new colony of honey makers.

The honeybee culture is extremely fascinating, although overshadowed by tragedy.

Talk about sex discrimination! Only the females work, spending their lives collecting pollen for future honey.

Only females have stingers. Unfortunately, their pleasure at inflicting pain on their enemies comes dearly – at the cost of their lives. One wonders if the honeybee knows that her sting will kill her, but decides, “I’m gonna stick it to him anyway!”

Speaking of the queen, she, like some human counterparts, occasionally flies off and has sex with a dozen or more males. Apparently, the experience is inspiring. She will go home and lay up to 1,500 eggs a day in spring and summer!

We don’t know if a bee colony has a resident preacher standing ready to reprimand her for her one-day orgy of indiscriminate sex.

Personal triumph

I’m guessing that the two most dominant aspirations in America are accumulating wealth and losing weight.

On our recent trip to the beach, when I walked into the office of Kevin Willis, our condo complex manager, I was struck by how much younger he looked than when I saw him several months ago.